Friday, May 24, 2013

Someone sent me a video link last summer, showing someone
spiral cutting a hot dog. The wienercision was done by Blake Smith from
Chow.com, and I remember wondering if this technique would work with parboiled
Italian sausage.

Oh, it worked. It worked real good. By the way, I was going
to provide a link to the aforementioned video, but Blake ended the demo by
putting ketchup on his hot dog, so forget it. Okay, fine, since I did steal his technique, here you go.

Not only does this look very cool, the technique also
provides a significantly greater amount of surface area, and when you’re
talking about grilling meat, it’s all about the surface area. You could brush
barbecue sauce on an un-helixed Italian sausage, but here you’re literally
flavoring the sausage inside and out.

And if you're skeptical about how well barbecue sauce goes
with Italian sausage, take it from someone who ate one; it’s a match made in
backyard barbecue heaven. I’d like to wish all you a safe and very festive
Memorial Day weekend, and I hope you “spring” these curly “Q” sausages on your
guests. Enjoy!

38 comments:

Jim Rose Circus, huh? You weren't, by any chance, the Amazing Mister Lifto who hung heavy weights (cinder blocks, steam irons, beer kegs, etc.) from his body piercings, including those in his nipples and genitalia. At Lollapalooza Lifto would perform the "genital lift" feat after spraying shaving cream on himself.

You don't have to fess up if you would prefer to keep your past secret.

Can't wait to try this recipe! But wait... what no Cayenne? I just bought the biggest container of Cayenne BJ's had just so I can get your recipes exact! Hey, Paula Deen has her butter, and Chef John has his Cayenne... Nothing wrong with that!

I've seen this spiral-cutting technique before, but wooden skewers were used so there was no worry about wrecking a good knife. The guy used a long knife and could roll them across the board and cut them in about a second.

I completely screwed this up by using turkey sausage. The recipe and the method would have worked fine, but I quickly discovered turkey doesn't hold together or swell up like pork sausage. Not to worry it is a long weekend; I have lots of charcoal; and there are plenty of pork sausages at the store.

I tried this last night with sausages from Lockeford Meat & Sausage. My homemade BBQ sauce paired surprisingly well with them. They were not the Italian variety so I was a bit worried. A buddy of mine demanded that I prepare them this way from now on. Because the sausages were already smoked and fairly firm, I was able to skip the par-boil phase.

So as a German, I cried a little when I saw what you did to the sausage. I thought it would just dry it out completely.

I didn't want to hastily judge, so I bought some Bratwurst to try it with (clearly superior to Italian, sorry) and used a sauce based on German curry ketchup and it was delightful. Not too dry, but not super juicy, kind of in a sweet spot were it doesn't run everywhere, just in your mouth.I did use wood skewers, because I didn't want to risk ruining my knife ;)

I don't want to sound redundant, but I'm wondering when you are going to demonstrate the Ragu alla Bolognese http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwyCUOijLeE recipe. You already did the American Meat Sauce one, so it's time to do the continental version.

Cheers & keep those delicious recipe coming for many years.

P.S. I was sad when you took down the BEKRI MEZE video since I consider it your ultimate recipe that I could make perfectly each time. It is so easy & delicious at the same time.

Chef John - love watching your videos. You've really helped me improve my inventory of recipes and skills. I credit you to my family and friends for the meals I make that they like. 2 questions:

1. I've heard pros/cons about putting hot food into the fridge. You mentioned it on this video. Explain?

2. My (too expensive) gas grill took a couple of big tumbles this year in nasty storms. Lots of broken parts. Debating spending big $$ for another gas grill or going back to something like a Weber kettle wood/charcoal grill. Thoughts?

When people we really love get sick it's so awful. We worry so much. And this proves how very lucky we are to have them in the first place. I don't agree with the way life takes these people from us (and us from others) eventually but as of yet I haven't figured a way around it. If I do I'll be sure to start my own blog. :)

I surprised my husband with this recipe. It was so easy and turned out great. The basil mayo recipe wasn't posted so I found a very simple recipe (1 cup prepared mayo,1/4 cup basil, 1 tsp lemon zest and 1 tsp lemon juice and a pinch of salt) It was a lovely combo. I will try your basil mayonnaise recipe but I still have horrible flashbacks from the last time I attempted from scratch mayo. I enjoy your videos and appreciate your desire to make us all better cooks no matter what our skill level is. Keep up the great work

If you score them only 1/4" or about half as deep they don't need the skewer and they work just as well. Works with almost any kind of sausage or hot dog. Not too well with loose sausages like Mexican chorizo.

If you go to any major city in Canada the cart vendors have been doing this forever. It allows you to take a sausage or kielbasa that has a natural curve to it and allows it to lay flat on the grille no matter which way you roll it. It also expedites the cooking time.Bubba' right, a 1/4" is plenty deep. The shallower the cut the more apt it is to stay juicy.

The Canadian street vendors have been doing the spiral cut sausage trick for ever. It works quite well. They don't do the wooden skewer trick which is a pretty good idea for keeping them straight when your trying to do a bunch of them at the same time.